Munros, munros, munros as far as the eye can see! An active journal of this active pursuit, but do there have to be so many? Advice, stories, photographs as well as a good variety of completely off-route rambles.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

New Music

August and September have been good months for new music here. Both Simon and Sonia have provided plenty of good stuff, but in addition Rullsenberg and Cloud brought up an entire catalogue when they visited and I have been gradually getting into it.

The most notable new entry so far then is the superb disk 2 of the Jar compilation from the wonderful Leicester-based Pickled Egg Records (who now have Last FM presence). L&N picked this up at Summer Sundae. Disk 2 seems to contain more of the 'out-there' electronica that I like so much. Notables include the prog/jazz of Bablicon, the energetic brass mess of Scatter, the inventive jazz/krautrock of Now, the ramshakle melodies of The Go! Team, the playful L'Augmentation, the underground brooding of Volcano The Bear, the classical-tinged madness of The Big Eyes Family Players and notey Need New Body. All healthy new stuff, although not all of it is novel in format; L'Augmentation sounds close to Stereolab and The Big Eyes Family Players could easily be a Godspeed! side project. My fave on disk 1 so far is the Hassle Hound track.

A requested new entry was the LP from the dark electronica outfit Various Productions , but I must say that the album in total fails to live up to the promise of Hater, although Thunnk for one is an equal. Still a nice listen like.

In addition to the pre-packaged disks, there were two brand new Ash Grove collections, and these are of the usual high standard. High points so far (beyond appearences by the artists mentioned above) include Disco 2000 by Nick Cave, Teach Me Sweetheart by Fiery Furnaces, Megamanic by Bob Mould, I May Just Have to Murder James Blunt by Mitch Benn and Localised Flooding by Kempston, Protek & Fuller. It's all good.

... and the 7 hour trip to/from Barnsley just wasn't long enough. When I get organised, some of this may just turn up on some future fine compilations. Meanwhile, I have work to do. Press play and stand by.

'Disco 2000' by Nick Cave - are you serious!? - that's amazing. These Superqueens sound interesting - must check them out. I'm into 'banjo bluegrass twang' at the moment - just a phase (as with the Lute music) - haha!

About Me

"George" is a Yorkshire lad who was dragged up hills all over the country as part of a terrible abused childhood. This has left him with a psychological condition whereby he feels a need to visit innumerable mountain tops, possibly as an attempt to 'cleanse his soul'...